Good evening. If you're watching
with me to Luke chapter 5, Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5 and look with
me if you will at verse 1. And it came to pass that as the
people pressed upon him to hear the word of God. Here we have a group of people
pressing upon our Lord Jesus Christ to hear the Word of God. And as I studied this, I couldn't
help but think, they did not press upon Him to see some great
miracle. Many people did. They did not press upon Him so
that He could fill their belly. They had a need in their soul. They pressed upon Him to hear
the Word of God, and I love this, They heard the Word of God from
the Word of God Himself, Christ. I love thinking about it. You
may recall Mary, when she sat at our Lord's feet, the Lord
told us the one thing that is needful. He said, Mary's doing
it, sitting at His feet and hearing His Word, the Word of God. That's
the one thing we need. And I pray that's what we might
have tonight. Isaiah told us, hear and your soul shall live.
I wanna hear. I know you have to hear me audibly
right now, but I pray that you and I both might hear him, that
we might hear from him. Verse one again, it came to pass
that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God,
he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw two ships standing by
the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing
their nets. Here comes our Lord on the coast
of this sea. In Mark's account, we just read
it's the Sea of Galilee. And his eyes are on these two
boats. It says he saw these two boats. There very well may have
been many boats. It was a large sea. But his eyes were on these
two boats. And he notes here that there
were some fishermen that were out of their boats. They were
washing their nets. They'd been fishing, and now
they're done. And our Lord sees them. He takes note of them.
And I'll go ahead and tell you, and you may already know, but
the Lord came here for them. He came here for those vile fishermen. And I just want to point out
that those fishermen were not among those pressing upon Him
to hear His Word. They were washing their nets.
There was another group of people coming to Him, following Him,
listening to Him. They weren't among them. He sought
them, okay? He sought them. Verse three says,
He entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed
him that he would thrust out a little from the land And he
sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Here we're introduced
to Simon. Simon Peter, the fisherman. That's
what he was. He was a fisherman. Says the
Lord entered into his ship. He walked right up and he walked
right onto his ship. He didn't ask for permission
to. He joined himself to his ship. And I couldn't help but
think about this. Of all the ships that not only
may have been there, of all the ships in the world, our Lord
purposed to join himself to Simon Peter's ship. Amazing grace that
sought him. And then he kindly asked Peter
to let out a little bit, let the boat out a little bit into
the water. We just read that Peter was washing
his nets. He was done fishing. He'd been
on the boat a long time. Now he's off the boat. Now the
Lord's asking him, get back on the boat. Let's go out. Let's
take this out into the water. You know, though Peter was ready
to go home, the Lord had other plans. Sovereign grace interrupts
our plans. Aren't you thankful? He didn't
ask Peter if he'd wanted to go out for a little bit, because
Peter probably would have said no. In fact, I know he would have
said no. The Lord drew him out. Let's go out. And I love what
the end of verse 3 says. It says, he sat down. You know,
sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't sit down when we do this. Our
Lord did. He sat down, and he taught them
out of the ship. And I can't help but think what
an intimate setting that must have been. You know, when you're
sitting down talking, it's intimate. It's sweet. I love just thinking
about the fellowship and the gracious words that proceeded
out of his mouth that they got to hear. Amazing. They wanted to hear him and he
spoke to them. He let them hear him. I love
it. Verse four, now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon,
launch out into the deep and let down your nets for draft. Our Lord, if you look at the
end of chapter four, this might have been the same people. They
were following him. They were hanging on to every
word. They were begging him to stay with them. Don't go. He
said, I must go preach the kingdom of God to other cities also.
And I suppose some of them just followed him here. And they wanted
to hear him. He sat down and he taught them,
fulfilled their request. But now he's done teaching them,
and it's time for him to deal with one of his chosen ones,
Simon Peter. It's time to deal with Peter.
Can you not already see God's grace here? The mere fact that
our Lord came to where he was, he could have joined any boat
in the world. He could have gone anywhere. And he came to Peter's boat.
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, he came to Peter's boat. He brought
himself, he brought his word, and he brought his people to
Peter. Brought it all to Peter. And
now we see a gracious command. He said, launch out. into the
deep. Peter, we're going fishing. We're
going fishing. Verse five, and Simon answering
said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night and have
taken nothing. I can't help but think that when
our Lord told Peter this, surely he must have been a little bit
insulted. You see, Peter was an experienced Fisherman, if
you find me out on a boat, I promise you I have no idea what I'm doing.
I probably just want to jump in the water and be silly. You
put a fishing pole in my hand, I may catch something, I may
not, but once I reel it in, I'm not sure what'll happen. Well,
not Peter. He knew what he was doing. He
was an experienced fisherman. It wasn't just his occupation,
that was his life. You remember, after our Lord
was crucified, you remember what Peter did, don't you? I go fishing.
It's all he knew. It's who he was. He said, Master,
we've been doing this all night. As if the Lord didn't know. That may have been the first
time in his life where he toiled all night and caught nothing.
It very well could have been. Our Lord, I'm fully persuaded
of this, I know it. Our Lord purposed that not a
single fish was gonna get in his net that night. You believe
that? If you believe in the sovereign God, you do. Verse 5 again, he
said, And again, I can't help but sense some sarcasm here in
Peter's response. If you say so, well, all these
people are here wanting to be taught of you, so maybe you're
up to something. I don't know. Well, okay. At your word, we'll
do it. He doubted. Again, by nature,
we all doubt. We don't believe Him. We don't
believe in Him. We don't trust Him. He doubted. But by God's
grace, he complied. Lord made it so that he complied.
Now, I want to go ahead and preface this by telling us what's about
to happen was not reliant on Peter's cooperation. Peter going
along with this had nothing to do with the outcome. In other
words, what's about to happen is glorious and Peter's not going
to get any glory for it. Just the vessel the Lord was
pleased to use. The very fact that Peter complied here, Psalm
110 verse 3, God made him willing. Again, Peter was ready just to
go home, but our Lord wouldn't let him. It wasn't time. Our
Lord made him willing in the day of his power. We're about
to see God's power. The man Christ Jesus that walked
this earth, he had this whole world that he was walking on
in his hand. The whole world in his hand. Peter doesn't have
a clue, and none of us do until the Lord reveals it to us. Peter
didn't have a clue, but he's about to witness, both physically
and spiritually, the majesty and the power and the sovereignty
of God Almighty. Verse six, and when they had
this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their
net break. Now recall, before the Lord came,
Peter and these fishermen, they had toiled all night What that
word means is they labored with wearisome effort. They did that
all night, and yet they caught nothing. Do we see the picture
here? Our labors, our efforts, our
works can and do accomplish nothing. Nothing. We need God to save
us. His works are the only good works,
marvelous, wonderful works that can save a sinner like you and
me. He caught nothing on his own. And this great draft of
fishes that they caught wasn't Peter's doing. That's why the
Lord didn't need him. He used him. But it was the Lord's doing. I'm sure it was marvelous in
Peter's eyes. And it was all according to the
Lord's word. He spoke the word and it came
to pass. It was all according to His Word and His power. He brought those fish into the
net. Couldn't help but think of Jonah. I love reading about
Jonah. There at the end of chapter one,
we read that the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. The Lord did. You say, well,
well, those people threw him off the boat. Yes, they did.
And that too was according to the Lord's will. They prayed
and saw the Lord's will in the matter. They feared the Lord exceedingly.
And the Lord preserved Jonah. He prepared, you think about
that. That fish was just out there being a fish, swimming
around like fish do. And the Lord spoke to that fish
and directed that fish at this exact moment to come right here.
And here comes Jonah. Likewise, the Lord caused every
single one of these fish that came into Peter's net, fish get
in the net. Get, all you fish, get in the
net. He made those fish swim into
Peter's net, and at that precise moment, they got in the net.
Again, I don't know much about fishing, but a memory just popped
into my head. One time when I went fishing
with my dad, we had the fish in one of those caged net things,
and buddy, they were trying as hard as they could to get out.
There's no doubt in my mind, not a single one of these fish
was trying to get out. Why? Because the Lord put them
there. Just like He makes us willing, He makes us fish willing.
That's His power. It's the power of God. It's not
resisted. It accomplishes what it sets out to do. Verse 7, And
they beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ship,
that they should come and help them. And they came and filled
both the ships, so that they began to sink. Those nets that
they had been toiling all night to fill and had caught nothing.
They were now so full that they were beginning to break. The
ship that the net was on was breaking, then they start spreading
some of those fish into another ship, and both of the ships,
it says, were starting to sink. Now, I don't know about you,
but my brain just can't comprehend that. That just sounds so illogical
to me. It doesn't make any sense. His
thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. They're
much higher. infinitely higher. What do you
suppose made the difference in the night that they toiled and
caught nothing in that very moment when they caught everything?
What was the difference? Christ. Well, they tried some new tactics,
got some new baits. No, they had the same nets. Our
Lord tells us, Same net. He said, we're going to go out
and you're going to throw your net out for a draft. Same nets. The Lord didn't come up with
some miraculous nets. It's the fact that He was there.
It's the fact that it was Him doing it, not Peter. Christ is always the difference.
That's the whole purpose of this message. That's the whole purpose
of every message we come and sit here and listen to or stand
here and preach. Christ is the difference. He's our message.
He's our hope. He's our all in all. It's always
Christ. Quite simply, they didn't have
Him, and now they do. You can say that, can't you?
They didn't, now they do. And again, they weren't seeking
Him. They didn't even ask Him to come on the boat. He got on the boat.
And then, at this point, you think they were glad He was on
the boat? Oh my, you better believe it. Better believe it. I'll go ahead and tell you that
this is a wonderful fishing story. Again, I'm not really into fishing,
but this is a great fishing story, but the glory of this story isn't
the fish. In fact, the whole purpose of this story, it wasn't
about those fish being caught. It was about our Lord, the fisherman,
going to catch Peter, and Andrew, and James, and John. Look at
verse eight. When Simon Peter saw it, and
I want to point out the fact that it is in italics. Now, no doubt Peter saw what
was taking place. He saw the fish. He saw the nets
breaking, the boats sinking. But he saw something else. He
saw someone else. He saw the Lord. The Lord did this. You know,
I've heard this said a lot. The Lord will meet you on the
grounds. You come on. Peter was a fisherman.
The Lord dealt with him with fish, with fishing. Use that. Peter could enter into that,
couldn't he? The Lord purposed it so that
this would take place. This was the means by which he
was going to reveal himself to Simon Peter. And look what Peter
cried here in verse 8. When Simon Peter saw, when he
saw the Lord, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. That right there is the cry of
someone whom the Lord has caught. That's the cry of someone whom
the Lord has drawn. You know, in the net, you draw
the fish. Ask the cry of someone whom the
Lord has drawn to himself. Moments ago, he stood face to
face with, literally, yet was far away from the Savior. You
understand that? Many people stood face to face
with him who knew him not. Until right now, Peter knew him
not. Stood face to face with, yet was far away from the Savior. He was as vile as a sinner could
be. He just cried that. Now the thought
filled his poor heart with sadness. And this is what Peter thought.
There's no hope for a sinner like me. That's what happens when we see
the Lord. You remember what Isaiah said when he saw the Lord in
the year of the Kings? He saw his sin. He saw himself
for what he was. Like Paul said, a wretched man
that I am. And we don't get beyond that.
In this life, we only feel that more and more. Is it not so?
You who believe for a long time... Depart from me. Now you think
Peter actually wanted the Lord to leave him? Of course not. Just like those people we just
read about that were wanting to follow him and hear him and
hang on to every word he had to say. But Peter was convinced
beyond any reason of a doubt that because of how wretched
and vile he was, the Lord must depart from him. You can't possibly
have anything to do with me because I am a sinful man. And you're
the Lord. The Lord, holy, righteous. But praise God, unbeknownst to
Peter, he was the whole reason the Lord came here. Save his
soul. Call him out of darkness into
his marvelous light. The Lord didn't come there to
condemn Peter, though he could have and would have been right
to. And same for you and me. He came not into the world to condemn
the world, but that the world through him might be saved, might
believe. His people. Peter was one of his people. Peter wrote
about in his epistle, He wrote about the elect, the strangers
scattered throughout. And by God's grace, he was one
of them. Praise the Lord. Salvation came to Simon Peter
right then and there. And it comes to every single
elect child of God. Every single one of them. Verse
eight again. When Simon Peter saw, he fell
down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful
man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all
that were with him at the draft of the fishes which they had
taken." Peter and all that were with him, we don't know who all
was with him. I know his brother Andrew was with him. It seems
like the people that were there in the beginning, or at least
some of them, might have still been there with him. At this point, we know
James and John and maybe some others are on the other boat,
but they're all there together, okay? They all knew, this is an unusual
thing that has taken place here. This is extraordinary. This is
a miracle that only God could perform. And if we ever witness
the power of the Word of God in the revelation of Jesus Christ,
and that's how we'll know God's powers, in the revelation of
Jesus Christ. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, how God speaks
to us, how God gives us life and faith in Him, reveals Christ
to us and in us. And if He ever does, we'll be astonished. I'm
sure these men were astonished at Well, we just read it, the
multitude of fishes that they'd taken. But it wasn't the fish
that astonished them. It was the Lord. It was the Lord
that astonished them. Look, down here in chapter 5,
look at verse 26. The Lord had just healed a man
that was paralyzed, couldn't walk, and he forgave his sin. He said, what would be easier,
to say, get up, take your bed, and walk, or say, your sins are
forgiving you? And then people saying, well,
who are you to forgive sins? Only God can do that exactly.
And so he just did both. They might see the power of God.
Caused him to walk and also saved his soul, forgave his sins. Look
here what they said when they saw this, Luke 5, 26. And they
were all amazed and they glorified God and were filled with fear,
saying, look what they said, we have seen strange things today. I imagine that's what Peter and
the men with him thought too. And the word strange there, it
means extraordinary. That's an extraordinary event. That's an
extraordinary power, is what that is. If the power of God
is ever revealed to us, it is certain we will glorify God. We will be filled with fear. And like Peter, we'll cry that
same cry, Lord, I'm a sinful man, a sinful man. And you may have noticed it,
but at the beginning of the message, we saw Peter, when he first spoke
to the Lord, called him master. And all that means is teacher.
Again, he was teaching, called him master. But now he knows,
oh, you're my master and so much more. You're my Lord and my God. The end of verse 10. He said,
from henceforth thou shalt catch men. I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead
of myself. Look at verse nine again with me. For he was astonished
and all that were with him at the draft of the fishes which
they'd taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, fear
not, fear not. Just told you, and I believe
this. Peter, he thought the Lord has got to get out of my presence.
No man can see the Lord and live. I must surely die. I'm a soul
that has sinned. But the Lord said, fear not.
Every time I read of our Lord telling his child, don't fear.
Fear not, little flock. It's your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. The Mount of Transfiguration, he told them.
They fell down with their face sore afraid. Fear not, it is
I. It is I, be not afraid. Why? Even though we're vile sinners
worthy of hell and damnation, why should we not fear? First
of all, let me point out, it wasn't just the man telling him
that, it's God himself telling him that. If God tells us not
to fear, brethren, we have nothing to fear. A man may say, well,
you're fine, as sure of heaven as if you're already there, that
means nothing to me. We should run and flee from such a thing.
But if the Lord says, Peter, fear not. Yay, Lord. I believe, help thou
mine unbelief. We read that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I'm chief,
he said, it's a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation. We
don't have to fear, brethren. We don't have to fear. Well,
I'm too vile. Yeah, but I'm not too vile for God's amazing grace.
I don't know. Our Lord saved these four men.
And I love thinking about this too, because all through the
scriptures, our Lord would save, he would enter a family. He'd
save one, not the other. He saved two sets of brothers
here, and not only two sets of brothers. They weren't upstanding
citizens, great, outwardly righteous, church-going, God-worshipping
people like everybody thinks they are. They were fishermen. I don't think that's a highly
reputable occupation. And he saved two sets of them,
two sets of brothers that were fishermen. And again, they weren't
seeking him. I got to thinking as I looked at this, I wondered
a couple things. One, when our Lord asked Peter
to, because it says he prayed him, that he might, he asked
him politely to thrust out the boat a little. I wondered if
he even did, because we know the command came right after
him. There was no disobeying that command. But two, I wondered
when our Lord was on that boat, if Peter let the boat out, that
he was on the boat. I mean, almost for sure, right? I wonder if he even listened
to what the Lord was teaching him. Doesn't ultimately matter, because the
Lord saved him anyway. But I'm just saying, he wasn't seeking
Him. Do we see that? I want us to
see that so clearly. He did not seek Him. He wasn't
seeking Him. He wasn't looking to be saved.
He just wanted to catch some fish and go home. But like we just sang, in tenderness,
He sought them. Oh, the love that sought him.
Oh, the love that sought Simon Peter. He caught him with that
irresistible grace and effectual call. And as the psalm sings,
in wondrous grace, he brought him into his fold. Not just any
fold, his fold, the fold of God. Amazing. Now look at the end
of verse 10. He said, fear not from henceforth
thou shalt catch men. From now on, these four fishermen
are going to be fishers of men. Gospel preachers, His servants. They were going to be His disciples. He was going to send them out.
They were going to walk with Him and talk with Him and hear Him
preach and learn from Him, be taught of Him, and then He'd
send them out to go preach the gospel. And the Lord was going
to use them greatly. I want to show you Matthew's account. We'll
come back here and hold a finger in Matthew. We'll turn right
back there too. Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4, look at verse
18. And I'll just go ahead and tell
you, this Matthew's account is just as glorious. It says a lot
less concerning this account. but it's no less glorious. I
wanted to look at Luke's account because there's a lot there I
wanted to be able to talk about. Look here, Matthew 4, verse 18,
So he obviously saw them before they finished, right? In our
account, they were done, they were washing their nets. He came
up there and he was washing them long before. In verse 19, Follow me, and I will make you
fishers of men. And they straightway left their
nets and followed him. Now, again, keep your finger
here. We'll come right back. But can we enter into the power
displayed right here? Why on earth would they up and
leave everything? I mentioned it wasn't just their
job. I could take or leave my job, but this was their life.
It's all they knew. Why would they up and leave it
to follow him and become fishers of men? I'll tell you why. the
power of God, the power of His Word. We think we do what we
want to do, don't we? And yet everything that happens
is Him doing what He wants to do. It's Him accomplishing His
will and His purpose in the earth with all men, with all women.
These men were going to go out and they were going to declare
the gospel of the kingdom of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. We know this is the means God
has been pleased to use to reveal Himself to His people. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching. Foolish that He would use a man
like Simon Peter, a vile fisherman, to declare the glory of God.
That's the foolishness of it. It's not the message. The message
is wisdom. The message is Christ. Nothing
foolish about the message. But the foolishness of Him using
a fisherman to be a fisher of men. That's the foolishness of
it. And yet that's the very foolishness. God has been pleased to save
His people, to reveal salvation to His people. Now look here
in our text, verse 11, Luke 5, 11. And when they had brought
their ships to land, they forsook all and followed Him. Again,
I am not a fisherman. I think we've established that,
haven't we? But I didn't ask anybody that
I know likes to fish, but I made this assumption, so hopefully
I'm right. But I'm assuming most fishermen probably are not fine
with parting with their ship. It's kind of like selling a truck
to move on to a new truck. You probably still like that
old truck. They left their ships behind.
without even thinking about it, no hesitation. They just parted
with it. They weren't concerned about,
well, they didn't take their nets.
They didn't even take the fish. They were just amazed at the
multitude of fishes that they had caught, left it all behind. Again, they have the Lord now. What else do they need? And look
back here in Matthew's account, look at James and John, Matthew
4, 21, It says, and going on from thence, he saw other two
brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a ship
with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. And they immediately left the
ship and their father and followed him. They left the ship, they left
the nets, they left the fish. James and John left their father
right there in the ship. Sounds kind of cruel, doesn't
it? Why? Why would they do that?
Why would they follow him and their father stayed in the ship?
Only one reason. It's because the Lord didn't
call him. Lord didn't call him? If he had,
then there's no doubt he would have followed him, just like
they did. The Lord didn't call him. He
said, my sheep hear my voice. I know them. The Lord knows them
that are his. And they follow me. That's exactly
what happened here. All four men right here that
the Lord called, they followed him. Whoever among that crowd
that was following him, desiring to hear the word of God, whoever
among that crowd was his sheep, they heard his voice and they
followed him. The same irresistible, effectual
call. I reckon that Zebedee, their
father, got to keep both the ships, all the nets, all the
fish, all the profit. And yet the sad reality is that
man went home, and unless the Lord saved him, died empty-handed. Nothing. And yet, his two sons, and I
don't know if they were his only sons, if he had more sons, I
don't know, but those two sons, and Peter, and Andrew, They didn't
go back home. In fact, they had a new home.
Where are we going? I don't know, but we're following
you. They left that day with a whole new life. They followed
the Lord. I just said, where are we going?
I don't know. He didn't have a place to lay his head. Where
are we going to lay our head? This doesn't sound safe. There's
nothing more safe than following the Lord. Do we not find that
to be so in our daily life? as the providence of God unfolds,
yeah, we doubt, just like Peter did. When he went out on that
boat, do you think he thought, we're gonna bring home all these
fish? No, and he sure didn't suspect that he was about to
not even go home that day. He sure didn't expect to find
himself believing on Christ and following him wherever he goes.
Oh, but that's exactly what happened. You see, it wasn't long ago,
that very day, maybe an hour ago, fishing was his life, but
not anymore. No, they had Christ their life. All four of those men, Christ
was there. Our life is hid with Christ in God. Christ is our
life. Had a whole new life. He that
hath the Son hath life. Whatever we think life is, it's
not. I'm an accountant. That's not
my life. That's a job. Christ is my life. You understand that? This is
it. I'll close the message. God has
a people that he has chosen unto salvation from before the foundation
of the world. Here's the whole point of my
message. He will call them to himself. You don't have to wonder
if he will. He will. We just read it. He did. He will. He most certainly
will. It's an effectual call that will
cause us to straightway forsake everything, no matter what it
is, and follow Him. Nothing can get in the way. If
God has saved us, nothing can get in the way of following Him.
Why? Because He saved us. We're not saving ourselves. If
we're saving ourselves, if we're keeping ourselves, we're not
going to be saved. We're going to fall away. We're going to be lost
forever. But He comes to us, He saves us, He calls us with
a holy calling, and we follow Him. And I love to tell you this. I love to rejoice knowing this
is who God is. This is my God. This is my God. And I know these things can,
I'm trying to expound them, I'm trying to explain them the best
I know how, but honestly, it can only be experienced. I pray
what these men experienced, I pray we'll spiritually experience
the same thing. On one occasion, Peter said,
lo, we've left all and followed you. When I first ever read that,
I thought he was bragging. He wasn't bragging. The Lord
said, there's no man that hath left father, mother, wife, who's
not going to receive manifold more in the kingdom of God. Peter
said, we've left all and followed you. He was just stating a fact.
By God's grace, he did. But know this. It wasn't Peter. It was Peter. But it was the
Lord. It's like Paul when he said,
I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the
grace of God which was with me. God works this in us. He makes
us willing to hear him. Again, our Lord came teaching
and Peter just, I got some nets to clean. I'm doing something
here. If God has purpose to save us, brothers and sisters, He's
going to save us. He's not going to ask for our
input on the matter. We're not going to have to sit down and
think it through. Well, let's make a budget here. He'll make
us follow Him, and we'll be so happy to follow Him. This was
the best day of Peter's life. My prayer for you and me and
for my kids and your kids is that the Lord might do for us
what he did for him. Lord, reveal yourself to us. Lord, get on
my ship. Or better yet, put me on your ship. Let's have fellowship. Let's be fellows in the same
ship. Do for us what you did for them. Call us to yourself. Lord, don't leave me alone. Don't
let me go through this life without any acknowledgment of you, any
concern for my soul. any honor and praise and worship
for you in my heart, Lord, save me. Call me by your grace. Enable
us to hear your word with the heart and follow you. Amen. Lord bless his word.